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Friday, July 9, 2010

In my studies of Entertainment Education I’ve learned that when writing an appropriate EE script whether it be on TV or radio, it is essential that there are three types of characters in a story.

1) Negative characters – these characters exhibit all the behaviors and attitudes on any issue that the program is trying to change in the general audience2) Positive characters – a character (usually 1 or very few in number) that exhibits exactly the behaviors and attitudes on any issue the program is promoting. This is a role model.3) Transitional characters – represent the majority of people who can waiver from negative to positive behaviors. Usually the audience relates more to this character.

Even though in real life I don’t choose to believe that no person is truly good or bad, I do like the concept of applying “transitional characters” to life. Since each of us are essentially in the transitional state of our characters for our entire lives that allows us to discover the negatives and positives to any situation/issue/problem. More importantly though then realizing oneself is a transitional character, is the knowledge of knowing that each and every person one interacts with is also a transitional character.

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comments:

Judy, I'm so glad you made this post. I am volunteering with PCI Media Impact (radio programs in the mountains) here in Peru and with another org (Minga Peru) that broadcasts EEs in the Amazon jungle. Good info to know!

A lot of the programs that were run for children during their school break had kids acting in EEs. I usually don't know exactly what's happening because of language - but those types of characters come across lound and clear. Thanks for posting!